("When should we bust into harmony?")
Where the grey-scaled conjurers (it)
Where the lifelike perjurers (write it)
Where the vested spectators (watch it)
Where the weapon chancellors (gun it)
Where the twilight mandolins (play it)
Where the high custodians (mop it)
Where the panic violins (panic)
Where the crabby handmaidens (scrub it)

Down the line
Down the mercenary barbary
Down the line
Did the martyrs morbid poetry
("What are we singing?")
("Uh, that doesn't make any sense what you just said. Hey, can you--")
Down the rampart
The vandals give in to defeat
And down the landscape
The linemen passed it fara, fara, faraway
Render unto Caesar
Render unto Caesar

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Historical context: what album the song's on, how popular it was

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The Genius annotation is the work of the Genius Editorial project. Our editors and contributors collaborate to create the most interesting and informative explanation of any line of text. It’s also a work in progress, so leave a suggestion if this or any annotation is missing something.

We included the Greek for Dave Longstreth, who has said this album is in some ways about bad translation. During the writing he read the Bible for fun. He was apparently interested in the recursive failures of Sixties activism in light of the Occupy encampment at the time. It fits with the distributive economics liberation theology angle of the verse. The verse also has an anti-authoritarian message, and parallels the band’s countercultural refusal to participate in “mindie” (mainstream indie) theatrics. They position themselves as artists who pursue higher truth and more serious art.